The Amphibian Project
Team (APT) is a subset of the 2007-2008 class of the
Emerging
Wildlife Conservation Leaders (EWCL) program. The team is made up
of five environmental professionals selected from the non-profit, private
and public sectors, with experience in research, environmental
education, fund raising, communications, and community outreach. The
team consists of:

EWCL is an
initiative that brings together twenty-one new,
emerging leaders in the wildlife conservation
field for capacity building and intense training
in campaign development and skills, including
implementation of a two-year international
wildlife campaign. Wildlife conservation
is benefited by the nurturing of future leaders,
information sharing and idea exchange amongst
conservation entities, and the tangible
conservation products generated as part of the
group campaign exercise.

Payal Kapoor: Born in Hong Kong and an Indian
national, Payal moved to the U.S. to attend the
University of Virginia. At UVA Payal majored in
economics and following graduation joined the
management consulting firm of William M. Mercer
as an analyst. After two years at Mercer, Payal
decided to follow her heart and started her
search for a position in a conservation
organization. She joined The Conservation Fund's
corporate development team for a short while and
then moved to Conservation International where
she has been since. At CI, Payal started as the
coordinator for the Indonesia program and then
transitioned into her current role of senior
manager in the Public Funding department. In her
position, Payal is responsible for working with
CI’s programs on reports, work plans, and
proposals to U.S. government agencies. Payal
enjoys traveling, photography, and eating out in
DC.

Carol Rizkalla: Carol went to the
University of Richmond where she pursued a B.S.
in Biology and a B.A. in Political Science. She
then went on for a Master of Environmental
Management at Duke University. This is a
professional program, rather than a research
program, stressing multidisciplinary coursework
over a thesis. Typically, students do an
internship between the first and second year,
which results in the master's project. She took
a 6 month internship at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Her supervisor there studies cotton-top tamarins
in Colombia. Carol analyzed some of her
supervisor's data for her masters project,
relating the diet of cotton-tops to reproductive
patterns. Upon graduating from Duke, her boss
at Disney offered her a position on an ongoing
study of captive elephant behavior and
vocalizations. She remained in this
position for 2 years before returning to the
world of field conservation. She entered a
doctoral program at Purdue in ecology. Her
dissertation focuses on the dispersal ability of
forest rodents in fragmented landscapes, and the
implications of future land-use change. She
hasn’t finished yet, but has returned to Disney
a third time, this time as the wildlife
biologist. About one third of Disney
property is in conservation easement. She is
monitoring the wildlife there, as well as
monitoring sea turtles that nest at Disney’s
Vero Beach Resort. Current projects involve
birds, butterflies and herpetofauna, including
testing native Floridian frogs for chytrid
infection.

Jennifer Sevin: Originally from Miami,
Florida, Jennifer resides in Virginia and works
for the Smithsonian Institution. Science and
education are Jennifer's two main interests and
her work and academic experiences attempt to
bridge these two fields. Jennifer received a
B.S. from Florida International University in
Environmental Studies and later a M.S. in
Zoology from North Carolina State University.
Her master's gradate research involved studying
the use of black bears and salamanders as
management indicator species for biodiversity
monitoring in Pisgah National Forest, North
Carolina. Since 1994, Jennifer has served as
President of Youth Environmental Programs, Inc.,
a nonprofit organization that focuses on
providing environmental education and volunteer
opportunities primarily for youth. She created a
water pollution education and action program
called the Officer Snook Water Pollution
Program. This program has been adopted by the
U.S. Coast Guard and together with other
organizations has provided educational
presentations and materials to an estimated five
million people across the U.S. In her current
position, Jennifer coordinates professional
training courses in the U.S. and abroad for
scientists and resource managers on a variety of
subjects. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at
George Mason University. Her current research
interest is studying the distribution,
abundance, and habitat use of the endangered
Shenandoah salamander and producing a monitoring
plan for this species for Shenandoah National
Park. Jennifer also enjoys traveling, sports,
photography and eating chocolate. Her dog,
Raleigh, is the most precious dog in the world.

Scott Smith: Scott was born and grew up
in Long Island, New York. He attended the
University of Maryland at College Park (Go Terps!)
and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree
in Biology. Scott worked in the environmental
consulting field for several years in New Jersey
and Pennsylvania and then for five years in the
Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup for the Department
of Environmental Protection in Massachusetts.
During this time, Scott attended graduate school
at Antioch New England in New Hampshire where he
graduated with a Master of Science in
Environmental Communications in 2006. Since
January of 2006, Scott has worked in the Public
Affairs Department of the Wildlife Conservation
Society at their offices located at the Bronx
Zoo in New York City. Present job
responsibilities include drafting of press
releases, institutional policy, opinion
editorials, and letters to the editors of area
newspapers. Scott also coordinates much of the
online web advocacy, city council outreach, and
the Take Action program for WCS.

Aimee Weldon:
Aimee is the Living Lands Project Manager at
Defenders of Wildlife in Washington D.C., where
she works to help the national land trust
community to more effectively conserve wildlife
and biodiversity on private lands. Prior to her
position with Defenders, Aimee coordinated the
Virginia Important Bird Areas program for the
National Audubon Society. In this role, she
helped to delineate Virginia’s first 19
Important Bird Areas and then worked with local
communities, conservation groups, and state
agencies to develop grassroots strategies to
protect them. Aimee is originally from
Minnesota, where she earned a B.S. in Biology
from the College of St. Benedict. She later
received a Masters in Zoology from North
Carolina State University where she studied the
effects of habitat fragmentation and wildlife
corridors on the nest success of Indigo Buntings
and other birds. In her spare time, she enjoys
spending time outdoors looking for birds and
other critters or doing just about anything
creative.